Good night of hunting

[paul555]

I travelled a bit last night, and got out with Ben.  The critters were moving!  Called in on 7 stands: 4 fox: 3 gray, 1 red.  If I could shoot sraight, we'd have some pictures.  

I missed 2 grays, Ben missed 1.  I learned a lot, especially that I need to practice shooting at night with my shotgun.

[bigben]

needless to say I was a bit nervous when I looked at the weather report and seen no clouds and a full moon.  here is the complete story.  

met paul at the bottom of our driveway and we decided one vehicle would be better then two.  paul offered up his rav4 so I loaded my gear into his vehicle and we went to get something for supper first.  after some discussion on how I setup and some warm grub in our bellies we headed to the mountian.  went to my honey hole where I killed my coyote at.  I had a felling that this would be the best stand to kill something.  we setup with paul in the treestand and I was sitting directly below him.  turned on the call and about 5 minutes went by of misc bird distress.  turned it to the deadly grey fox pup.  about that time heard something slowly making a aproach below us.  he was crossing from behind us to the front to a little rock ledge that runs the whole length of the mountian from top to bottom.  he was still messin around so I turned on the GFP and coon fight and here he comes I seen him about 50 yds out I cocked the hornet and hoped that paul had seen him.  about that time he is directly in front of us on a log running to the end hopped off and ran straight toward us.  at about 8 yds from me paul dropped the hammer and he scampered out of there as fast as possible.  in pauls defense if was very dark and we should have had head lamps at that time.  the fox showed at around the 15 minute mark and then came back and cussed us out at about 50 yds away in the thick brush.  we crawled down the mountian and back to the vehicle to head down into the bottoms to get others.  
     the next stand was dry and we went home to fix my head lamp real quick.  drove to another stand and called my pantry puma on that farm.  gathered our stuff up and went to another stand.  as bright as it was we were trying to stick to the dark parts of the shadows.  turned out a bird distress and sure nuff here comes a red bebobing down through the field.  so I get ready and about that time it spooks.  the farmers lane is right behind us and the farmer was coming down the back entrance way.  we called across the road and produced nothing.  one red spooked and one big grey missed.  
    went to another stand and it was dry grabbed a dew and some jerky at the local quickee mart and headed to the next stand.  as we were walking out I was telling paul that I have called this spot twice this year and both times produced a grey.  so be ready.  we get out there and start vole squeek and turn to the deadly GFP distress again.  surenuff a grey shows up about 75 yds out.  I am going to start calling this fox the shy grey.  each time he has shown himself he tends to stick to the brush and will not come out.  I attempted a standing shot off sticks and failed.  now we are up to two greys missed and one red spooked.  
     so I decided to call right on our back driveway.  I knew there were greys in the area but I needed to watch because the farmers cats was everywhere.  I started out calling with a vole squeek again.  I stopped and wailed on a critrcall standard a few times and a set of eyes appear and then dissappear.  I called rabbit in distress for a bit and then turned on the GFP distress.  there the eyse do the same thing only he climbs up on the road and turns away from us.  paul got ready for the shot and I said hold on.  stay ready.  next thing I know I here leaves russling above our right side.  on our right side there is a cliff type thing that is about 30 ft tall from cutting the back drive in.  there he is looking down at us.  he started playing peek a boo.  allmost like whack a mole.  he would just peek over the edge enough to see me and then back up.  he did this 5 or so times till paul shot and that was it.  by then it was getting late and paul still had a 3 hour drive home.  

I did learn that I could see eyes paul could not even if he was less the a few feet away.  I am used to hunting by myself and not with a partner.  I guess since they hear the sound source coming from me they do not look else where.  It was probably the most fun I had hunting at night.  and I am glad that I could put some fox in front of paul.  I just hope next time we can kill some critters.

[Buckwheat]

Bigben

Great story to read, now Paul is hooked forever.

[paul555]

now Paul is hooked forever.

Already was...  but that was wayyyyyy cool!!   :mrgreen:

[220_Woody]

great hunt guys....good to see members getting together for hunts. good story BB.

[bigben]

I know one thing I have been doing this year is sitting atleast for ten minutes.  I used to call for 5 and leave.  the first grey came in after 10 mins.  the red came in right away but I am guessing he was just over the knoll.  the next grey came in I think around 6 or so minutes into the stand.  and the last one showed himself around the two minute mark but I thought it was a cat first before he did the same thing again and walked up on the road.  I will get some pics of the setups then.  but I tell ya I have learned more this year then the last few years.  I just hope to finally kill something soon.  I still cannot believe that we called that many in on a full moon night.

[Dale]

but I thought it was a cat first before he did the same thing again and walked up on the road

them buggers will normally take the path of least resistance... specially in bad weather as they don't like getting wet any more then we do... if they have the choice of following a road/path verses plowing through brush and weeds, you can normally bet they'll be on the road...

[madcatter]

good story.where abouts are ya in washington county.i am in burgettstown,near the ampitheatre,maybe we can hook up sometime

[paul555]

I'm in California, about 20 miles east of Washington.  Where is Burgettstown?